New talent comes and goes every day in the cutthroat business of entertainment, and many of these star hopefuls never make it to the stage before they are given the pink slip.

YG Entertainment, one of the largest and most powerful K-pop agencies here, said earlier this week that the highly anticipated new girl group SuPearls, who had been scheduled to debut this year, has in fact broken up. The fate of three of the four former SuPearls members remains to be seen.

“We have decided to nullify our contracts with Lee Michelle, Lee Jung-mi and Lee Seung-joo without any terms,” the agency representative stated. “They concluded that it would be best for each other if they just break up so the decision was inevitable.” 

The girl group garnered a lot of hype and attention from the media and K-pop fans everywhere because this was set to be the first girl group YG was to debut since the creation of one of the most iconic girl groups in Korea, 2NE1. SuPearls was first formed during the filming of the first season of the SBS survival singing audition program “K-Pop Star” and were praised by the judges throughout the competition for being a unifying vocal powerhouse.

The group originally consisted of contestants Park Ji-min, Michelle, Jung-mi and Seung-joo. However, after the show concluded, the “K-Pop Star” winner Park decided to leave the group to sign with JYP Entertainment, the rival of YG, and was later replaced by runner-up Lee Hi. And of the girls who were supposed to debut under SuPearls, only Lee Hi ― who made a monstrous debut last October with her chart-topping single “1,2,3,4” ― will be staying with YG to continue her solo career and is expected to release her solo album next month.

It is certainly not unheard of for groups to form and break up even before their debut. Hyorin of Sistar had originally formed a group with vocalists Song Ji-eun of Secret and EXID’s Yuji. However, the trio later admitted to having irresolvable issues that made them unable to debut together and decided to call it quits.

The five ladies of the former girl group 5 Girls ― made up of members G.NA, Wonder Girls’ Yubin, After School’s UEE, Secret’s Jeon Hyo-sung and Yang Ji-won of Spica ― were also set to debut back in 2007. However, due to 5 Girls’ former agency Good Entertainment’s financial troubles, the members decided to break up and go their separate ways.

By Julie Jackson (juliejackson@heraldcorp.com)